MOSCOW, September 25. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow believes that Kiev should solve its problems with Moscow before joining the European Union, Ivan Soltanovsky, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry Department for Pan-European Cooperation, told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.

“There used to be a problem with the Association Agreement. I am not going to make any political forecasts but we can see the desire of Ukraine’s political and business elite and we can also see the state of Ukrainian society. Anyway, problems with Russia should be solved,” the Russian diplomat stressed.

“We are trying to solve these problems at our consultations with the European Union and Ukraine, but it would be rather hard to discuss (Ukraine’s accession to the EU) without taking account of the Russian factor,” Soltanovsky said.